Office Assistant
by AutumnWallflower
Summary: Who said life as an Office Assistant wasn't interesting? It definitely is when you're working at the BAU in Quantico. Join Aurora Willms on a Journey she'll definitely not forget. "I thought I signed up for filing case files, not filling them in."


**the Superstitious; Part I**

A frustrated huff escaped her lips, as yet another stack of case files was so generously slammed down on the desk, by no-one other than SSA Aaron Hotchner himself. Biting down on her lower lip to cut off the insult she would surely have uttered had it not been for _Sir _Hotchner being a Unit Chief thereby also responsible for reporting any misbehaviours straight to Section Chief Erin Strauss. Disrespect towards superiors would surely get her fired.

As insignificant as her job was; filing and moving case files around wasn't the most thrilling career choice she'd made; she wouldn't want to lose it. This was one small step closer to her dream of becoming an actual member of the team. Not that anyone knew. The higher educated team members hadn't paid any attention to her; she'd worked here for three weeks and not one had even asked for her name. They usually just grabbed files out of her hands and then, as Sir Hotchner had been so kind as to demonstrate, slammed them back down on the desk. From where she had to take them and put them back in their respective places.

It could indeed be positively confirmed that Aurora Willms, was not too fond of filing paperwork and desk jobs, but working as an Office Assistant at the BAU offices in Quantico was one miniscule step closer to being an actual Supervisory Special Agent in one of the Behavioural Analysis Units. Not that she'd shared her dreams with anyone; being someone that had never even set a foot within a University.

Neither had she received good grades on her last report as a Senior in High School, although her financial problems might have been the reason for her falling grades. Working several part-time jobs to pay for shelter and food left little time for course-work.

It was therefore highly unlikely she'd ever get that far. There was a small flicker of hope, as she _had_ been accepted during the Job Interview, but if there was one thing she didn't want, it was getting her hopes up just to watch them fall again. She'd therefore taken to believing Chief Erin Strauss had hired here because of pity. Erin, or Chief Strauss as she was supposed to call her at work, was one of the regular clients in one of the bookstores she had a part-time job at.

The two had fallen into friendly conversation, and somehow she'd manage to let it slip that she was having some financial issues. They had then left the conversation at that, Aurora having to help another customer with a purchase.

Three days later, Erin had come back to the book-store with a proposal. From there on it had been a roller-coaster ride of conflicting emotions. On one hand she wanted to accept the job offer with a huge smile on her face, the pay of $32/hour was a huge step-up from the measly $8.70/hour she got for her work in the bookstore. But the independent woman in her had argued that she would be taking charity.

After asking for some time to make her decision, the answer had suddenly come crashing in her face in form of the three months over-due rent and a landlord telling her she better get it together before she was thrown on the streets, he had said and it's a direct quote, "you can't keep living here for free."

That's why she was now sitting amongst shoulder-height stacks of pale brown case files, all waiting for her to sort them into her newly developed and Strauss approved filing system. It was a system that put the murders into their crime category with sub-categories becoming more and more specific until finally they came to the Alphabetical Ordering of Criminal's last names. There had even been a whole new room for unsolved cases, where they had been sorted according to known victim count instead of names. Then within the number of victims, colour coded with the gender of the victims. Taking the file she was currently working on as an example; this killer had 7 victims, all female. She quickly took a neon pink post-it note from the pile and scribbled down the number 7. Then she placed it on the right-most side of the 7 victim killers.

She rubbed her eyes with a fist as she grabbed the next folder in the pile of unsolved cases; quickly skipping past the crime-scene photos to the incomplete report. Glancing for the tiny fact she was looking for. Weapon Used, Nope. Dump Sites, Nope. Abduction Sites, Nope. Ah.4 Victims. All male. She quickly scribbled it down on a blue post-it note.

"Knock knock."

"Who's there?" Aurora muttered, her sub-consciousness presuming it was a 'knock knock' joke.

"Aurora," this time Aurora recognized the warning tone in Erin Strauss' voice. She snapped her head around, eyes rising up to meet the Section Chief's. A sheepish smile already appearing on her lips.

"Sorry." The mumble was so soft that Erin had to strain to hear it, a rueful smile appeared on her lips, the girl was a young innocent lamb that had gotten itself lost, and currently found herself in a building full of wolves. The metaphor wasn't so far off either, most of the other agents would definitely give her some tough love, and Erin wasn't sure if Aurora could handle that.

"It's alright," Erin told the young woman, "I need you to give this case file to SSA Derek Morgan of Aaron Hotchner's BAU Unit and,"

"That's not correct." Aurora cut her off, "BAU is short for Behavioural Analysis Unit, so you just said 'behavioural analysis unit unit'." Aurora's eyes widened as she realised she'd let her tongue slip.

Erin wasn't fazed, her lips turned into an affectionate smile, her heart surging with maternal pride for the young girl. Here in the BAU everything was about bouncing stuff of another hoping to inspire each other to the right idea, but Aurora didn't know that. Erin's countless hours talking with the girl, gave Erin some insight into the girl's mind, and right now she was definitely chastising herself.

"Aurora," Erin said, "I did not know that. So I guess I'm a bit wiser now."

Aurora gave a polite nod, but both knew that she hadn't quite forgiven herself just yet.

"As much as I'd like to talk, I really need this delivered to SSA Morgan." Erin stated, shoving the case file into her hands and all but pushed Aurora out of the room and on her way.

Aurora found it all suspicious, but she couldn't neglect a request directly from the boss. Walking through the corridors she noted how wide they actually were, nothing like the crappy one file walkways in the office building she'd worked in previously, and for a 20 year-old, that were way too many building.

When she finally reached the room that held Aaron Hotchner's team, she couldn't help but stop. The huge glass doors with the white logo painted on, left little of the offices to her imagination. The desk were similar to usual ones with one exception, these were all extremely messy and not at all organized like the other were required to be.

She also noted that none of Hotchner's team was in the lower offices; glancing around and craning her neck to get a better look didn't help much either. She was chewing on her lip before she knew it, trying to chew all the stress away.

"Do you need help?"

Aurora jumped at least 3 feet into the air in shock, but she quickly gained her footing and swivelled around coming face to face with a slightly chubby Kevin Lynch, someone that had often come by the file-room with the recently scanned files, and was now seen as an acquaintance in Aurora's books.

"Yes, I'm looking for Derek Morgan?" Aurora asked,

"They're in the briefing room, a case came up." Kevin said bitterly, dislike seeping into his voice.

"They?"

"The whole team." Kevin replied, "You better be quick if you wanna catch them, they might be taking a yet within five minutes."

"Thanks!" Aurora yelled over her shoulder as she pushed the glass door's open, hurriedly manoeuvring between the desks, quickly making her way to what she knew was the briefing room. Another example on why guided tours through the building were very useful.

She knocked on the door, and flinched when she saw the heads of all the occupants swing towards her, she gently pushed the door open.

"SSA," she quickly glanced down at the folder she was holding, "Morgan." Her eyes looking back up into the briefing room, gazing around waiting for said SSA to give her some form of confirmation. On the way round the room something caught her attention.

"Are you watching a movie?" Aurora suddenly inquired, her brow furrowing at the scene that caught her eyes, as weird as it sounded there was something awfully familiar about the image projected onto the wall.

"We're investigating crime scene photos for a case." Penelope Garcia, the bubbly blonde-haired technical analyst, told her kindly, as if she was explaining something to a young child.

Aurora's eyes widened and her face turned a nice shade of tomato red as she stuttered out her next words, "Sorry. Uhm. It's just," she fumbled with the case file in her hands, "It just looks awfully familiar." In the eerie silence that follows, she starts gently chewing her own lip, trying to find some comfort in the now hostile tension.

"How so?" Senior Supervisory Agent David Rossi finally asks, leaning on his elbows. His eyes looking sincerely interested in the reason behind the young woman's sudden outburst.

Aurora took a couple of deep breaths before she felt ready enough to voice her thoughts in front of her superiors. Mentally berating herself for not thinking her before speaking.

"It's extremely similar to a crime scene from a book I recently read." She finally muttered, the floor suddenly seeming like one of the most interesting objects in the whole planet. "It's called 'the Superstitious' and it's by Patricia Kyle."

"PK." Aaron Hotchner muttered, Aurora's gaze snapped up and her eyes squinted in confusion, her mouth forming into a silent 'What?'.

"What's the book about?" A feminine voice asked,

"It's a thriller about a series of 43 murders, spread over 3 months. The victims are different ages and have almost nothing in common. Except for the fact they've all had some exceptional luck in whatever they're doing. The villain was quite unlucky and after his first murder, which was accidental, his luck turned around. He thought the murder was the reason and kept killing, until one of his victims managed to escape and warn the police."

She looked around the room again, her eyes taking in the different emotions the others were showing. Ranging from realisation to shock to amazement, and at the last one Aurora's cheeks reddened.

"You should read it," she added, "Oh. I was supposed to give this to you Sir." Handing the file to the man she had identified as Derek Morgan before quickly taking her leave. She did not want to be there when they realized she had acted out of line. She should probably go talk to Erin Strauss about leaving. She'd rather leave with a dignified goodbye than a humiliating walk of shame.


End file.
